Shaykh Nazim (qs): Be Humble in Your Teaching

Ever emphasizing the importance of humility, Shaykh Nazim (qs) here speaks on the importance of this most vital of all qualities for they who are instructors and teachers, particularly of religious and spiritual knowledge.

Shaykh Nazim explains that if a teacher has not first humbled him or herself through traditional tutelage at the feet of a master of tarbiyya, or training, it is near impossible to be free from ego, arrogance and pride, particularly as he or she acquires knowledge, and that their work and teachings will actually lead to an improper understanding and grasp of knowledge, leading to greater egoism rather than humility.

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Shaykh Nazim (qs): Be Humble in Your Teaching

Most people think that it is an easy job to address people, to simply take a book and read it, finish. So many people think that it is only sitting and speaking, either reading to the people from books and explaining, or sometimes memorizing to that people think that he really knows a great deal. This kind of teaching is only of the imitative kind.

The fountain of wisdom is the heart, not the mind. As long as you are giving lessons from your mind, you and the people you are addressing are on the same level, and so you cannot teach them anything. To teach the teachings of Allah and His Prophet ﷺ, you must have learned to teach with your heart.

If you teach from your heart, then the teaching will be like honey. But if you teach from your mind only, looking up information in a number of books and then reproducing it, then you resemble one who flies from flower to flower, like a bee, gathering nectar, then putting it in a jar and calling it honey — but it is not honey. For honey to be made, the bee must eat the nectar, and then the honey appears of itself.

Therefore, you must not let yourself be fooled by those people who speak for hours and hours on religion, thinking they give honey, because the difference between what they give and real honey is like the difference between heaven and earth. Even if they have attained the highest level of knowledge that the mind can encompass, it their teaching does not come from the heart, it isn’t honey.

The other kind of teachers are like bees, their teaching comes from the heart and is like pure honey. How does one become such a ‘bee?’ The Prophet ﷺ says, “If a person can keep sincerity, ikhlas, with his Lord for forty days, then his Lord will open up fountains of wisdom for that person.”

Now, our Grandshaykh (qs) says, “O Nazim Effendi, whoever desires to teach people in mosques and Sufi schools, zawiya, must be very careful, especially in these times in which we are living. Now, in our times, if a person is not humble, then he will never be able to carry out his duty effectively, he will never be able to make them believe in their Lord, or if they are believing, he will never strengthen them in their faith.”

If an instructor or religion isn’t humble, then his egoism will spread through his teachings to everyone who comes into contact with him. Even if the people hear so much good advice from that instructor, they will end up doing exactly the opposite of what they were advised.

To prevent this from happening is no easy matter, because everyone who is studying and learning and learning still more is, in most cases, going to become an egoist. And when people come to him and listen to him, they will go off and do as he does.

So many big shaykhs never admit or realize the necessity of fighting their egos, they just continue amassing knowledge which benefits neither themselves nor anybody else. Their knowledge feeds only their egos. They never consider, nor are they able to perceive that an important element is missing from their religious lives.

And so, as they won’t accept training at the hands of a Grandshaykh, they find themselves, along with the teachings they have imparted being disrespected by those very people whom they were thinking to help. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance for a person who wants to teach people to really see himself as their servant, to humble himself in front of the people he is hoping to teach.

Awaken Your Heart

The spiritual path is known as the Way of the Heart, and its goal is the awakening of consciousness and transcendent awareness. Only thus is true humility and sincerity possible. Learn how you can take the spiritual path deeper. → Awaken your divine potential.